Windows hosts.txt

[trogladyte]

In the past, when installing a new site of which there is one currently live, I've used hosts.cx to get a unique URL. However, it's dead right now and I need to install a new site.

In the past I've had issues getting Win 10 to recognize hosts.txt changes. But I decided to have another go.... still having issues. I read a ton of stuff on stackoverflow and other places and tried almost everything written to fix it. It's definitely something on my computer because (and this is what I'll have to do for this install) I can hop on my wife's computer (also Win 10), edit the hosts.txt, and install without issue. We're both on the same network so it's definitely inside the office and definitely just me.

Anyone have any bright ideas?

[sozzled]

See https://www.groovypost.com/howto/edit-h ... indows-10/

I don't know how this relates to J!, though.

[toivo]

In the past I've had issues getting Win 10 to recognize hosts.txt changes.

The name of the file is just hosts, not hosts.txt.

Notepad++ in Administrator mode processes updates to the hosts file all right.

[trogladyte]

No it's not specfically related to Joomla. But, I'd done a pretty exhaustive search elsewhere; was looking for some experience from the Joomla forum. Thanks for the article - nice little editor, but, alas, it didn't help.

[trogladyte]

Looking in the drivers\etc directory, I see it is saved as just plain "hosts" without the .txt. Funny, everyone on the web calls it hosts.txt.

[toivo]

So you use the hosts file to generate a dummy domain to refer to an external website still in development?

It is also possible to get the hosts file to point dummy domains to the local IP address 127.0.0.1 in the Windows workstation, when test sites are hosted locally, running a bundle like Wampserver.

Which editor do you use?

As you noticed, you need to make sure that the editor does not add the extension .txt to the filename.

[sozzled]

I have the Windows host file many times. I have my reasons for doing this; they are not specifically related to J!.

Why, specifically, do you need to edit this file? Is there a problem with accessing certain websites on the internet?

In my situation, I need to maintain the Windows hosts files with several different computers within my LAN IP subnet range.

As far as editing is concerned, I use Windows Notepad (as long as you "Run as administrator" as mentioned in the link I posted earlier).

[trogladyte]

When I'm uploading a new version of a site which exists on the net already (for example, I've rebuilt www.wwcspro.com). I need to upload that site onto my hosting, then I change change, in this case, the A record which will ensure a smooth transition from the old, existing site, to the new one.

Changing the hosts file and adding:

<my hosting IP> wwcspro.com

I can install it using wwcspro.com/kickstart.php (I'm using Akeeba Backup). However, if there's an easier/different way to accomplish this, I'm all ears!